the postman. you could get millions and millions for that. heather: haven't quite decided what direction their going to do. bill: so you came back for punishment today. heather: i did. bill: and more tomorrow, right? heather: i haven't learned the lesson now. bill: right on. keep trying. "happening now" starts right now. jenna: brand new stories and breaking news. >> indeed, we do. the justice department taking a closer look at a -- the government's use of intelligence that led to an arrest. prompting to some to ask if the practice violates the constitution. we talk to the reporter who helped break the story. and a witness drops a bombshell in the trial of a woman who prosecutors say knew her former boss was behind her husband's murder. what she and the convicted killer were allegedly seen doing together. out of room and out of time, the fate of this big rig driver after an incredible accident, it's all "happening now."

♪ ♪ >> and hello, everyone, i'm kelly wright in for jon scott. jenna: i'm jenna lee, and right now the justice department is reviewing the actions of a secretive unit run by the dea. some of its practices are raising questions about whether the dea and what they're doing violates our constitutional rights. this follows an exclusive reuters report detailing how agents inside the dea's special operations division use information on taped by a variety of sources including -- obtained including surveillance methods by the nsa. and now the means by which the evidence is originally collected the lawful. after authorities make a risk, the person on trial may not know about the original tip that led law enforcement to them. so they may not know it goes all the way back to the nsa and their surveillance programs.

critics suggest hiding the origin may violate our right to a fair trial. so it's a big story. reuters broke it, and john shipman is one of the journalists behind this scoop. john, nice to have you on with us. >> thanks for having me. jenna: so our point of reference has been edward snowden and a lot of policy arguments, legal arguments about what the nsa is doing. what this group inside the dea is specific to the dea, what they're doing is something a little bit different. what do you think every american needs to know about this program? >> well, it makes this program different that this goes to nonterrorrist cases. the it's used in what they call ordinary crime cases; drug cases, organized crime, gang cases. and what happens here is that the dea's special operations division which has been publicly known for years for doing international cases and coordinating domestic cases is also passing along these tips, and the people in the field are instructed never to reveal they use it. jenna: why, john?

why are they instructed to say, hey, we got this because working between different agencies? >> well, that's a really good question. they say that -- the dea says they're protecting their sources and methods, but there are plenty of procedures for doing that in the court system today, and what the agents are doing in the field is they're pulling people over, say, for a broken taillight or for speeding, but really they've been tipped to show up at a certain place they know someone may be coming carrying drugs or doing something illegal. and the problem happens when they go to trial because people who are accused never know how the cases really started. jenna: how is that different than anonymous tipoff? let's say kelly knows i'm doing something bad, he calls the police and says, hey, jenna lee, you should keep an eye on her, and the police pick me up for some sort of reason maybe related or unrelated to that tip, but i never know kelly's the one that tipped them off. is there any difference? >> if it's truly anonymous,

there'd be no way to know. these are disclosed. what troubles defense lawyers and judges and prosecutors that i've spoken with is that they're not saying truly how a case started. and agents are instructed to write in their reports that it started, say, with a traffic stop or that they noticed something. and that's not being candid with the court, according to the judges and prosecutors we've spoken with. jenna: john, how often is this used? how long has it been used in different cases in this country? >> well, the dea tells us that it's perfectly legal, that it is used virtually every day, they call it a bedrock concept, and they've been doing it i said the late 1990s. >> we just reached out to the da hoping for an additional statement, and they just said they don't have a statement right now, but they'll send one as they do. the development of the justice department looking into this based on your story, in part, john, is something we'll continue to follow. in your story you really point out the two sides to it. as you mentioned, the dea says this is perfectly legal, but

there are people who say that this really violates our constitutional right to a fair trial. can you just map out both sides of the argument based on what you learned? >> sure. well, i mean, we talked to a lot of agents who used this, and the way we got onto the story is somebody gave us a training manual that outlines the construction, and it's how they recreate the investigative trail. they say it's perfectly fine, the dea says it's perfectly fine. and defense lawyers say it might be a way to stop somebody, but after you stop them it's important that all of the evidence that's collected in an investigation that is relevant or helpful to the defense be under various or doctrines be turned over to the defense. and the problem is the defense if lawyers and prosecutors say by systematically excluding it, by having a system where they can never see it or know about it, there are problems with trials. defendants won't know about potential exculpatory evidence and evidence of innocence,

mistake, entrapment. jenna: sure. do we know at this point, and i know it's very difficult to trace it because in so many cases we do not know the original tipoff that led to certain arrests based on your information, john, but is there any evidence out there as of yet where people feel that they were, that this information was abused in any way? >> well, it's very hard to tell, and the dea says they don't track it. i will say there was a honest current prosecutor who we interviewed who said that he was initially told in one of his cases that a tip came from an informant. when he pressed harder, what he learned is it actually came from an nsa sewer sent, and -- intercept, and he was so outraged, he dropped the case. jenna: interesting. how some of this is being applied legally, what does that mean for our constitutional rights. john, thank you so much for the reporting, and we look forward to having you back. it looks like you have some work on your hands and for the next few days, so thanks so much for

joining us. kelly: growing alarm over a series of jailbreaks in iraq, libya and pakistan where thousands of prisoners have escaped including hundreds of terrorists. it appears the head of al-qaeda is calling on his followers to free their prisoners in order to refill their ranks and launch new acts of terror. the latest prison breaks taking place just weeks before the u.s. state department shut many of its diplomatic posts in the region. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is live with more on this. good to see you. what do we know about the pentagon's role so far in the evacuation of embassy personnel in yemen? >> reporter: well, what we know is that general martin dempsey went to the state department yesterday and met for about an hour with secretary of state john kerry. at the top of his agenda was the issue of embassy security. we've now confirmed that one u.s. air force c-17 flew about 70 u.s. personnel out of yemen

early this morning, overnight enroute, we're told, to germany to the air base in germany. those, they are taking an abundance of caution according to state department officials in the wake of this terror alert, and so they took the unusual move of airlifting the 70 u.s. personnel out of yemen overnight, and the pentagon had a key role in that. kelly: yeah. we should point out that yemen, of course, is the headquarters for al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula, so that abundance of caution is understood by many. what role, if any, do these recent prison breaks that we've talked about in the middle east taking place and north africa play in the decision to close some 19 u.s. embassies? >> reporter: well, u.s. officials, kelly, say that the decision to close the 9 embassies came as a result of multiple threat streams, not just the communication that we reported on yesterday between zawahiri and the head of al-qaeda in yemen, al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula.

the intel community was on high alert after a string of prison breaks that began in iraq on july 22nd. at that time some 500 convicts including numerous members of al-qaeda escaped from abu ghraib prison in iraq. attackers armed with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades pushed through the gates which were breached by car bombs. five days later, on july 27th, more than 1,000 inmates in libya -- many of them feared to be al-qaeda -- escaped from a benghazi prison in an operation coordinated witmen outside that prison. three days after that on july 30th taliban fighters disguised as police and armed with bombs broke 250 prisoners out of a pakistani jail. on saturday interpol issued an alert to its 160-plus states asking for information that might link al-qaeda to these atacts and warning countries to be vigilant. >> clearly, they're concerning to us, and that's why i think you saw the interpol notice go

autothis weekend. we've -- out this weekend. we've called on the government of iraq to continue to try to find people that have escaped. again, it's a tough process. >> reporter: what's interesting, kelly, is that you'll remember back in yemen in 2006 there was a famous prison break in the capital which, in effect, led to the creation of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula, aqap, which is behind this current threat alert that has caused all these embassies to be closed. so it was originally a prison break that led to the creation of aqap. kelly? kelly: jennifer griffin reporting from the pentagon today, thank you. jenna: more on that story, but in the meantime, big news for homeowners or any of you who someday want to own a home. the president is expected to announce new plans to overhaul america's mortgage system today. he's going to propose shutting down government-backed lenders fannie mae and freddie mac, plus, he wants to boost the number of 30-year mortgages in

this market hoping it will make loans more accessible to more people so they can fulfill the american dream. carl cameron has more from washington. so a lot of proposals, carl. we're not sure exactly what will become of them, but what is the president proposing today in. >> reporter: well, he wants to strengthen the housing market by making 30-year mortgages more available, and one of the ways would be to do away with fannie mae and freddie mac and institute more capital into mortgage lending. shaun donovan is the president's hud secretary, the secretary of housing and urban development. he's how he put it this morning. >> we also have to make sure we never go back to a system that takes trillions of dollars in housing wealth away from families that can crash the spire world economy. so -- the entire world economy. so a big focus is how do we build a safe, stable housing finance system for the future. >> reporter: and a future where the housing is affordable. here's the shorthand. the president will say phase out

fannie mae and freddie mac -- that will not be easy, he's looking for new ways to encourage private capital and investment into what would be a new system of partially government-backed mortgage lending. the goal is to boost 30-year mortgages and net them to as many -- get them to as many people as possible while the rates are still low. at the same time, they have to take steps to make it a safe market that will not suffer the kind of meltdown we had a few years ago. jenna: are the administration planning to propose specific legislation, and when would that happen? >> reporter: well, the president will call on congress to act, and that's going to be tough for them right now because they're on vacation and won't be back in washington until september 9th. when they do get back, we have the fights over immigration, the budget, the debt, the debt ceiling, so it's hard to imagine in the getting put out. but there really is some public sentiment about the housing market. people want change. a recent fox poll indicated most people think the housing market is actually improving. 56% say it's getting better, and about an even half of that say

it's getting worse. the idea of doing away with fannie mae and freddie mac has been very popular with republicans for years. but recently a lot of democrat, including the former hud secretary, has been saying that the idea of a government-dominated housing system is over, and it's unsustainable. so there is some impetus, just not a lot of time to do it this year, and of course, next year is an election issue which means it could be hard to pass then too. jenna: carl, as always, thank you. kelly: evidence of a forbidden romance that ends in murder. a widow on trial for remaining silent and lying to conceal her affair with the man convicted of killing her husband. plus, the white house ramping up efforts to sell the president's new health care plan. a look at the political fallout for democrats if problems arise. ♪ ♪ hey, the new guy is loaded with protein!

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kelly: right now an update on some crie stories we are following. new testimony in the trial of andrea snyderman accused of lying about an affair with her former boss who was convicted of killing her husband. the prosecution presenting witnesses today recounting evidence of the affair. police in the nelson county, virginia, area are asking the public for help in finding a 17-year-old girl who disappeared saturday night. alexis murphy told friends she was going to lynchburg to meet a friend. she has not been heard from since. police say murphy was driving a white nissan max ma with the license plate wyn 3706. a man is headed back to court in cleveland on charges of kidnapping and killing three women whose bodies were found wrapped in trash bags. michael madison was arrested last month after the bodies were found in east cleveland. jenna: new evidence of problems

getting americans to embrace the new health care system. it kicks in exactly eight weeks from today, and as republicans continue efforts to overturn the law, public support -- as we have been reporting to you -- remains weak. nearly half of all americans still think the affordable care act is a bad idea, and that includes people currently without health insurance that could aim to benefit from it. my next guest points out that democrats are likely to get the blame for any problems that pop up. michael barone is with the washington examiner and a fox news contributor and recently just wrote on this topic. michael, what happens if the exchanges opens up and suddenly the public decides, hey, this is not too bad, we like it? is it over for republicans then? >> i don't think it's over for republicans then, but there does exist the possibility that this act will prove more popular than it has to date. speaker nancy pelosi, when it was under consideration, said the house had to pass the bill in order to find out what's in

it. what people have been finding out so far is pretty, has been pretty negative and has resulted in more negative impressions. so, no, we don't know exactly what the reaction's going to be. i suspect some people will be pleased with the operation of the health exchanges, but i think there's also going to be a lot of what president obama called glitches. jenna: it's interesting to see how different cities may or may not be using the health care exchange. there's been reports out of detroit and chicago that these cities in deep financial trouble may with looking -- may be looking to push some retirees into the health care exchanges instead of having to pay for health care benefits until they're the age of 65 or so, michael. if that happens and, again, it's just an idea, but if health care becomes entrenched in that way because of decisions made by politicians at a local level, how does that influence the political debate? >> i think one of the ways is that if cities, cities with big payrolls like shaq -- like chicago dump their employees on

the health care exchanges, this program is going to end up costing more than has been projected, because those assumptions were baked into the bill. one of the things you have to realize about this bill is that even its backers admit that it was not the ideal piece of legislation they wanted. that's because after the victory of scott brown, the republican in the special senate election in january 2010, democrats no longer had the 60 votes they needed to beat back a pily buster in the -- filibuster in the senate. and their only path forward was for the house to pass the bill the senate had passed in december which no one had expected would be the final version. they thought they were going to iron out a lot of the glitches in a conference committee. instead, they're paying some political price at present for them. jenna: so let's look ahead for a moment. "the wall street journal" today was looking at specific groups such as suburban women that are important to different political groups, independent voters, also

young voters. who is the group to watch to see how they feel about health care and how that's going to influence the conversation? >> well, i think the group to watch is young americans. the fact is that obamacare increases the cost of insurance for many, many people in the younger age groups because it limits the differential that insurance companies can charge in premiums between young people and older people who have more health care needs. consequently, one of the -- this program depends on young people signing up in large numbers in effect to subsidize the older people, people in the 50-64 age group. the obama team has gone out and created organizations to try to urge people to sign up. they had one over in northern virginia the other day, and only one person showed up to work on the organization. jenna: wow. >> if young people don't sign up, it's going to be big problems for this, and the whole scheme may come apart. jenna: well, we'll see, again,

if that marketing issue is worked out and what that means for the policy behind it. michael, we hope to have you back for the conversation as we continue to watch this big story. thank you very much. we'll have more "happening now" ahead. >> thank you.

>> alex rodriguez. kelly: whole lot of booing going on, not the find of fanfare he would like. twelve major league baseball players accepting their fate, taking suspensions for using banned substances. alex rodriguez says he is fighting for his life and will appeal the ruling keeping him off the diamond for 211 games. the yankees' slugger was booed during his comeback game. you're listening to it and watching it there. it was against the chicago white

sox last night, but that won't stop him from playing until the august 8th deadline. ken rosenthal is a senior writer for fox sports.com and field reporter for major league baseball on fox, and they lost that game last night 8-1. of course, a-rod was able to get one hit, he muscled one single in there, then he went up to bat and at no time do anything -- didn't do anything else. what's happening to his life? >> kelly, that's a great question. and his life is actually on two different tracks right now. his health is one thing, how he is recovering from his second hip surgery. he's now had surgery on both hips. and, of course, the suspension, the looming suspension is the other thing. and as you said, he is appealing it, he is allowed to stay on the field and continue playing during his appeal, and his feeling, obviously from what he said and his attorneys said yesterday, is that 211 games -- this season and the next -- is just too severe for a guy who, for all the controversy surrounding him, is a first-time

offender under baseball's drug program. kelly: you know, you and i discussed this yesterday before the suspensn actually came out when we were suspecting it might be 214 games, so they gave him 211 games. but even at that time i asked the question why is he getting so much of a hardened suspension of 211 games compared to the other players who are getting 50 games? >> kelly, that's a great question, and that is the question that we all would like answered. the first-time offense, the maximum -- until this one -- was ryan braun, 65 games. and now alex rodriguez is well beyond that. what baseball said in its statement yesterday was that he used peds including humowth hore over a multiple-year period. they said that he also obstructed and frustrated their investigation. now, when you add all of that together, depending on what the evidence is, does that equal 211

games? a-rod is betting that the answer to that is, no, and and that the arbitrator will be on his side. kelly: but, ken, has a-rod hurt himself because of some of his behavior off the diamond? has he created a public persona where people were say, you know, we really once liked this guy, now we're not so sure about him, and is this the case for bud selig to say, okay, now i can use him as a scapegoat and go out, retire with a bang because i did something about performance-enhancing drugs and performance of players? >> first off, kelly, a-rod's public persona for a long time has not been what it once was. and ever since he admitted using peds from 2001 to 2003 fans for the most part except certain yankees fans, of course, basically turned on him. nothing has changeed there. now, to the question of whether selig is using him as an

example, that is what, i'm sure, a-rod and his legal team would like you to believe, and perhaps that is true to an extent. baseball, though, obviously feels that it has a virtual treasure-trove of evidence against a-rod, and they feel that 3 -- 211 games is justified. kelly: ken rosenthal, we thank you and appreciate your perspective. great, great talent and so tarnished now. thank you. jenna: well, we now know who prompted the evacuation of the embassy in yemen and the two closures, and the closures of two dozen u.s. facilities around the world. we know it's al-qaeda, but why specifically did this terror alert surface to the likes of what we haven't seen in so many years? why now? what was it that we heard? plus, a meeting to discuss local issues turns deadly. a gunman enters firing and does not stop until someone gets close enough to take him down. now investigators think they know what may have motivated him in this murderous rampage.

we'll have an update for you just after the break.

jenna: right now we're waiting for new details about a deadly shooting in a town hall meeting in pennsylvania. any moment officials are expected to provide an update on the rampage that killed three people and rattled this very rural community. reports say the gunman fired as he approached to the municipal meeting where 16 to 18 people were gathered for a meeting.

once inside he did not stop. >> it is rather disturbing for us. you see it all over and here it necessary your hometown. jenna: now we're learning the suspect had a long running feud with that town. rick leventhal outside the scene of the crime. rick? >> reporter: jenna, that suspect, 59-year-old rockne newell, who was wounded with one of his own guns has been arraigned on three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault. he told the judge he couldn't afford a lawyer since he lives on $600 a month on government disability and has no job. when asked if i owns property, he said, quote, judge, they stole it from me. that is what started all this. newell has been in dispute with town officials over his dilapidated home described as junk ward with wood pal let's and a garage ready to fall over. after neighbors complained, officials found buckets filled with feces. newell said he couldn't afford the septic bill and eventually

the town ordered him to vacate the property. at the ross township meeting, newell looked for his revenge, firing on the building from the parking lot. continuing to fire with a rifle as he walked inside with all the people ducking for cover. went back to his car, dropped the rifle according to police, grabbed a handgun, shooting more rounds before a town supervisor named bernie coasten grabbed the suspect shooting him with his own gun, holding him down with another man until police arrived. >> had an ongoing dispute with township officials something about the condemnation of his property and things related to his sewer. not sure if he personally knew the individuals who had been killed tonight or not. >> reporter: bernie coast enwho stopped the -- coasten is here, instead very briefly live. he is very shaken up. he did not want to do an interview. he lost a friend.

it is just a shame all this had to happen, jenna. jenna: rick, thank you. kelly: jenna, fox news can confirm what prompt ad terror threat like what we've not seen in years. a source tells fox intertempted communications between leader of al qaeda and leader of that terror network's offshoot in the arabian peninsula. analysis of the exchange indicate ad possibility of one of the worst plots against american interests since 9/11. those fears led our government to extend the closures of u.s. embassies and consulates across the mideast and africa and issue a travel alert for americans that runs through the end of the month. dr. walid phares is a fox news middle east terrorism and middle east analyst. good to have you and sharing your insights on what you know about this the bottom line is, it seems al qaeda will not go away. what can be done to bring an end to this organization?

>> well, first of all what should be done is that the government, the administration in this case would acknowledge to the public that this war with al qaeda is not over. the organization is not on the path to decline, and that we need to mobilize efforts as in a way, not in police operations. once we do this, then we have strategies. for example, we got information through that phone call or phone email, what have you, between al-zawahiri, the commander of al qaeda and the head of al qaeda in yemen. in that conversation as far as we know what's public it has been said that al-zawahiri ordered an an attack against a target. you notice, kelly, over the past 72 hours there was fluctuation in reaction among our leaders. some of them it is very precise. we know precisely, it is very serious. in the last 24 hours, we really don't know where the attack will be so we'll shut doesn't entire apparatus, diplomatic apparatus in the region. we need to be focused that

al qaeda could do this anytime, not just the end of ramadan or next week or the following week. kelly: walid, we've seen this in the past where al qaeda likes to test to see what the western world will do and how it will react and respond to these threats they make known. the fact that we were there to intercept that chatter, that has now been revealed, how we did it. it also suggests to al qaeda, let's watch them, talk to the united states and other western allies to see how they will be respond? >> first of all, kelly, we have to understand and we read some of it in the inspire magazine, so it is in english, not just in arabic, al qaeda has graduates from the same university that some of our analysts go to in some cases and of course they do react to what we do. they do observe our systems and they do observe our systems and . every time we uncover a operation, they will explain it and every operation will be different, absolutely right.

kelly: having said that, as we move forward in terms of how to deal with al qaeda, to make sure we do put a final nail into the coffin, seems that will be impossible to do, i hate to say it, they're like roaches. you kill them they keep coming back. like a hydra, you cut off the head and they keep coming back with more. what do we need to do in that part of the world to change the mind-set? >> you mentioned experience of roaches, how you kill them, basically terminating what produces them. kelly: right. >> what produces al qaeda is the ideology. we're not waging a war on the ideology. the administration, that is not even recognizing there is one. if we do so, several fighters in the region working with us as we saw in tunisia and egypt that would be a long-term victory against al qaeda and long-term jihad its. kelly: that requires work. rolling up the sleeves to change the mind-set. walid farris, thanks so much as always for your insights. >> thank you, kelly. >> the state department is

encouraging americans in yemen to leave immediately and delaying those that have travel plans to the area. they are calling the security level, extremely high. this is however is not the first such time we've heard warnings from the state department when it comes to yemen. last year a mob attacked our emba system this happened shortly after the benghazi attacks on september 11. they broke through the the embassy gate, smashed windows of nearby security buildings and started fire cars on fire. they restored order but yemen continues to be a volatile part of the world to watch. kelly, we're almost to that engen, anniversary of 9/11 where we always have to watch what is happening around the world. kelly: boy, you're right. as walid indicated we have to change the minds. ideology going back to wahhabiism. that gets into whole whole new game what the young people are taught and follow through. jenna: you would think this many years after september 11 we

would have a better hold on it. this remains a point of debate. we'll talk about this hour and next hour more bit. kelly: we have a crash actually caught on tape. we'll tell you what sent this big-rig careening off an overpass and what happened to the driver. plus the trial for accused fort hood shooter, major nidal hasan, it begins today. it has been nearly four years since the devastating massacre. we'll talk about what to expect as the court-martial gets [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?

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jenna: crash caught on tape. a tractor-trailer gets sideswiped on an elevated highway in boston and slams through a guardrail. you can see it right there, highlighted on your screen. it fell 20 feet on to an exit ramp below. police found the driver who hit the truck. she was charged with drunk driving. incredibly the truck driver survived the crash with

non-life-threatening injuries. kelly: wow. today the trial begins for accused fort hood shooter, major nidal hasan. it has been nearly four years since the massacre that shook the nation. a u.s. soldier accused of opening fire at one of our largest military bases leaving 13 dead and nearly three dozen injured. the prosecutors saving in his opening statement today that hasan wanted to kill as many soldiers as he could. hasan has decided to represent himself, meaning victims could be questioned by the same man accused of shooting them. he could face the death penalty if convicted. joining us now is jeffrey king, a military lawyer to shed some insights on this what is going on in the court-martial proceeding. jeffrey, nidal hasan will conduct his own defense as i stated. he is a psychiatrist, not a lawyer by profession. he admitted to shooting his fellow soldiers. so what kind of defense do you expect him to present? >> well, i mean from what i understand he already opening statement. he told the jury of 13 officers

that the evidence will clearly show he did this and the judge, in a previous hearing has already told him he can not use the defense, defense of others. in other words that he was defending his, you know, his jihaddist brothers from imminent death or serious bodily injury from the fort hood soldiers. that is the defense he wanted to use. the military judge said that is not sufficient. you can't use that. like everyone else i'm kind of waiting to see what it is he intends to use as a defense. he may not even use a defense. what i've seen so far i think he is using this court-martial really as a platform since he already told the jury that he did this. kelly: i'm glad you raise that issue because could it be that he could be using this as a platform to possibly draw attention to hiss radical beliefs as well as try to even offer some sort of a message out there to recruit others into this kind of heinous,

despeckable act of terror? >> i mean i certainly hope not. of course he could try to do that. i think the military judge and the prosecutors involved with this case are going to go to great pains to insure that that doesn't happen because they actually have a big challenge here. they have somebody that has, an accused that will defend himself that will create a lost issues down the road. so the military judge and the prosecutors in every step of this case, are going to insure that it can withstand a appellate scrutiny. they know they will get a conviction. i think that is inevitable. what they're focused on making sure after this when it gets to the appellate level it will withstand the appellate scrutiny and they actually get the death sentence they're hoping for. kelly: jeff, running a little short on time here but the army invested five million dollars in this case so far. it has built a protective barrier around the courthouse, sand bunkers to protect against any possible explosions. the army is transporting hasan to the trial by helicopter i

might add, from the nearby bell county jail. all the money is spent for hasan while their wounded victims are struggling to pay their own medical expenses because the shooting was called a workplace violence instead of terror. will the trial have any bearing on that status? >> the money spent on hasan that is something we want to happen. the reason why i say that is because what the government is doing here they're ensuring that he has everything available to him to put on an adequate defense. so that when it gets to the appellate level, it will withstand the court scrutiny and to make sure there are no issues. so that if a death sentence comes down on this case, that will actually lead eventually to an execution. the first execution i might add in a military court-martial since 1961. kelly: but the heart break continues for families that deal with medical expenses. >> of course. kelly: because they're not ruling this as a terror attack. jeff, thank you for your

insights today. >> thank you. jenna: we'll continue to watch that. former president george w. bush is admitted to a dallas hospital. we'll find out how he is feeling after a heart scare. dr. marc siegel from our fox medical team joins us coming up. ♪ geoff: i'm the kind of guy who doesn't like being sold to. the last thing i want is to feel like someone is giving me a sales pitch, especially when it comes to my investments. you want a broker you can trust. a lot of guys at the other firms seemed more focused on selling than their clients. that's why i stopped working at my old brokerage and became a financial consultant with charles schwab. avo: what kind of financial consultant are you looking for? talk to us today.

jenna: all right, the doctor is in. former president george w. bush admitted to a dallas hospital having a stent inserted after doctors found a minor blockage in one ever his arteries. doctors say the former president is doing well and he should be released shortly but it really caught our attention. dr. mark segal has been bike riding with the president. a member of our fox news medical a-team and professor of medicine at nyu langone medical center.

this is a great reminder, doc, to get a physical. this was found during a routine physical. >> not only like that, 67-year-old man like, not an extra ounce of weight on him, i went biking with him two months ago on his ranch, over 60 miles over three days. we have navy seals had trouble keeping up with him. at the end of this he wasn't even out of breath. if anyone could have a blockage if he could. it didn't look like he was at risk for but it can happen to anyone. jenna: what did they find to say, hey, mr. president, we're going to need to do a little procedure here? why did they do it? >> here is why it happened. because he is a former president and because he is so active they actually did a post-traumatic stress disorder post-traumatic stress disorder as part of a routine feds call at cooper clinic. the post-traumatic stress disorder test showed ekg changes while he was exercising that led them to do a procedure, ct

angiogram. there is new way to see if there is blockage. once they found the blockage they put a catheter through an artery in the groin this morning, fed it up to the heart and put a balloon in and dilated the part of the artery that was closed. they put a stent in. jenna: i'm curious what a stent look like. sometimes we show animation. you actually have one you have permission to use outside after procedure. >> even though it is expensive they want to show it on tva stent is really tiny. you feed it up into the attar terry an leave it in there to keep the artery open. i will open it. jenna: how long should it stay there. >> for the rest of his life. jenna: would you have to replace it? >> hopefully not. once it lasts six months it should be good to go. we can show it here. this is the catheter. jenna: it needs to be sanitize. we at least know it is sanitized. how much does that device or that cost?

>> how do i open it? jenna: you use it in the operating room, doctor? >> no teeth in the operating room. >> we could have gotten you a pair of scissors. we'll see if you can open it. >> heat me try. jenna: while you're working on it, i will have liz our stage manager to open it. this is supposed to stay in for the rest of your life. is it any sort of, don't want to say implications from this, but what does the president have to worry about from this point on? >> he will be back at work in the next few days and he should have nothing to worry about from now on but, there is the risk of the stent clotting. so you use blood thinners. you use aspirin. you use a drug called plavix. he will be on plavix probably for a year. you use colleges stroll lowering drugs, we find plaques form if you don't lower cholesterol. those are the big three. people on stents are on cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin and plavix. they will monitor him very, very closely.

there is over 80% chance it will be stay open. i expect him to be mountain biking next year absolutely. jenna: anytime he shed be release and and out of the hospital? >> he should be out today. jenna: we know these stents are totally secure when they come to the hospital because we can barely get it open. but here it is, doc. we only have a minute left. but at least it shows a little bit what it looks like. we'll try to hold it up to the camera. there it is, interesting to take a look at. >> you feed it right into the groin. jenna: very, very small, doc, right? goes into the artery. >> very, very tiny. jenna: dr. siegel, thanks for bringing it. >> what will you do with that thing now? >> i don't know. jenna: maybe we need to keep it to remind us of this segment. dr. siegel, thank you very much. >> great to see you. jenna: kelly, we have one just in case. >> we can't use it now. kelly: thank you, jenna and dr. siegel. glad we got through that. meantime the pentagon is taking action in yemen due to a high-risk of terrorist attack by

al qaeda. an update on military efforts to protect american diplomats in the volatile region. plus an urgent bat toll save lives and protect homes from a raging wildfire. a live report for you straight ahead.

jenna: medical segments, in the meantime, brand new stories and breaking news this hour. americans getting out of yemen as we get new information that the al-qaeda terror threat that sparked the shutdown of u.s. diplomatic posts overseas the something we should pay attention to. we'll find out what it means for a threat here at home as well. action in the fort hood case, major nidal hasan faces a military judge nearly four years later. and new fallout for a-rod. what baseball fans have to say about all of this, it's "happening now." jenna: and a fox news alert on the terror threat around the world and breaking today some new evacuations in yemen with

the u.s. military flying out nonessential embassy personnel after the state department ordered them to leave the country. kelly: hello, everyone, i'm kelly wright. jenna: welcome to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jenna lee, and the evacuations coming after the threat by al-qaeda that triggered the shutdown of 19 diplomatic threats across the middle east and africa. a u.s. drone strike targeting an al-qaeda stronghold inside yemen. four suspected terrorists killed including one believed to be an al-qaeda leader. our greg talcott has spent some time on the ground in yemen, he's a great person to talk about this story with. you have sources there on the ground, what are you hearing? >> reporter: the word from our contacts on the ground in yemen right now is things are getting serious. those are their words. fox news can confirm 70 staffers from the u.s. embassy, what they call nonemergency staffers, were

flown out by u.s. military aircraft today. they are now enroute to germany. other u.s. citizens have been told to leave immediately in response to what is called a continuing potential for terror attack. we spoke briefly to officials at the u.s. embassy in sana'a today, and they certainly sounded like they were on high alert. we have been there, it is already well secured, but another contact said around that u.s. embassy today there are additional tanks, armored personnel carriers, troops, even u.s. surveillance aircraft overhead. the u.k. embassy has been completely shuttered, all employees have been moved out, and they are coming back here to the u.k. all this down to that communication occurring, according to the latest reports, between zawahiri, the head of al-qaeda, and the head of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula regarding a possible attack timed for the end of the muslim holy month of ramadan, and that comes this week. al-qaeda in the arabian

peninsula still regarded as perhaps the most lethal of all the affiliates of the terror organization, jenna. jenna: greg, as we also reported, there's been some activity against the terrorists there today. i'd like you to tell us about that, but if you would as well since so few of us have been inside the country of yemen, can you describe a little bit to our viewers what it's like walking the streets, what really are we facing there in yemen when it comes to this terrorist threat? >> reporter: well, we're facing, again, one of the most lethal terror organizations around. they are based out in the hinterlands not necessarily in the center of the cities like sana'a, so that is exactly where the drone strikes hit today. we are told by our contacts there that there was another set of drone attacks, various missile strikes hitting a place that's a province to the east of sana'a. that is the hotbed of al-qaeda activity. they hit a moving car with four militants inside including one member of the leadership. they also hit a headquarters of al-qaeda in the arabian

peninsula, again, out in the hillside. these drone strikes are coming fast and furious now, jenna, there had been a lull. but just in the last six days there have been six hits. so again, the u. to this lethal weapon. the yemen ii has been on the -- yemen, too, has been on the offensive in the last 24 hours. they posted a most wanted list including various members of the leadership. they are seeking information from the citizenry. they're offering some money for that. they're also fanning out to protect the infrastructure. you're right, jenna, we have spent time on the ground. we actually did a lot of time along with fox news portraying anwr awlaki, he's the american-born media star of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. he was taken out in a drone strike back in 2011. many contacts in washington said that this could be the end of this organization. it apparently is not. back to you. jenna: great to have your perspective on it, greg, as

someone that's been there. thank you. >> reporter: thanks. kelly: fox news alert, and after years of delay the court-martial of major nidal hasan finally underway today. he's the army psychiatrist charged in the fort hood massacre back in 2009, and he's never denied carrying out the shooting rampage which left 13 people dead. hasan now representing himself and with survivors of the attack set to take the stand. that sets the stage for a dramatic faceoff between the gunman and his victims. casey steegal live in fort hood, texas, with more details about this trial. casey? >> reporter: yeah, kelly, dramatic and also very emotional as you can imagine. i've got to say some record fast opening statements. the government or the prosecution in this case has only spoken for about 45 minutes and then wrapped up where they gave great detail about how hasan allegedly planned and carried out this attack and did all of the planning leading up to it.

we also learned troubling information about the shooting spree itself, how the 42-year-old army psychiatrist reportedly had two weapons concealed under his military uniform, 16 magazines holding 4 20 rounds and two laser sights for more accurate firing. then when major nidal hasan was given his big chance for his opening statement, well, he spoke for just a few minutes, probably about two minutes or so, and he muttered something along the lines of, quote: the dead bodies will show that war is an ugly thing. i'm continuing to quote here, the evidence will clearly show that i'm the shooter. as you know, there has also been great controversy with the department of defense classifying the shooting incident here at fort hood as workplace violence, meaning the victims and their family members are not entitled to the same

benefits and even purple hearts as if they were injured in combat. listen. >> these are tremendous people, tremendous people who have been, who suffered needlessly to begin with and who have been treated like second class citizens by their own government which they were serving. and yet they're coming forward, and they'll do their duty. i just wish the american government would do its duty. >> reporter: pretty bold statement there. after lunch today is when the witnesses will start taking the stand. it's not clear just how many are going to actually speak today, but we understand that the judge is really trying to keep things on time here, and the first day of this court-martial is supposed to be wrapped by 5:00 local time, 6:00 eastern, kelly. kelly: casey, as you mentioned, we are probably anticipating some very emotional testimony when those witnesses take the stand. casey steegal, thank you. >> reporter: absolutely.

jenna: out to california right now, a fast-moving wildfire forcing hundreds of families out of their homes in the southern part of that state. the u.s. forest service says the fire started in the cleveland national forest just a day ago. will carr is live from los angeles with the very latest. >> reporter: this fire raced up to several communities yesterday, and we have some amazing pictures. i want to show you some of the video we have. residents describe seeing walls of flames coming up towards their communities, so fire crews had to jump on this very quickly, in fact, they brought in a dc-10 that swooped down dropping thousands of gallons of fire retardant on this fire. fire crews did get some help overnight with the conditions, though, and even though this is still 0% contained, nearby residents say they're still on edge. >> within 15 minutes it was over the ridge and down the hill. >> it got too close, too close for comfort. so sprayed my house, the fire is, what, 100 feet away from us. >> reporter: imagine that, the fire being 100 feet away from

your home. so far there were some evacuations yesterday. some were lifted, some residents still remain forced away from the area. the fire's burned about 1500 acres. for some good news, there is supposed to be favorable conditions throughout the rest of the day, and so far this fire has not burned any homes or structures. jenna: that's good. we'll continue to watch the story, will. thank you. ♪ ♪ >> alex rodriguez. >> boo! kelly: wow. you think they're a little upset? jenna: we're glad they don't do that to us when we walk on set, right, kelly? kelly: how do you perform? anyway, thousands of baseball fans letting a-rod really have it during his first plate appearance be yesterday in chicago since getting suspended for more than 200 games by major league baseball for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs known as peds. and then trying to cover it up. adam houseley's live in san

francisco with more details about this. adam, what a, what a bad welcome. >> reporter: yeah, what a scene. i mean, most of us expected it to be that way. if you watched social media yesterday alone, you saw the reaction of so many fans that are us from traded with the fact that alex rodriguez is fighting this ban, and because he's fighting, it allowed him to play last night, suit up. in fact, there is the potential he could actually play the rest of the season depending how this whole arbitration process goes. mean tile, he did in-- meantime, he did insinuate it was a good day. even as he was getting booed, it seemed like every person in the stands had a cell phone or camera out as a-rod stepped to the plate. he would muffle a single -- muscle a single to left, but he wouldn't do so well and the yankees overall lost the game. he did speak about how difficult it's been for him in the last seven, eight, nine months. he's had two hip surgeries, of course, dealt with this ped situation.

take a listen. >> the last seven months has been a nightmare. it's been, you know, probably the worst time of my life, for sure. >> reporter: a-rod faces, again, a lifetime ban, potentially over 200 games and about $30 million of forfeited salary if it goes forward. an arbitrator will hear the case in the next ten days, and once that's done he or she is supposed to rule within 20 or days or so after that. but there's some other shoes that could -- issues that could potentially draw this out until after the season which ends the first part of october if the yankees don't make the playoffs. some of the players weighing in they want baseball to be clean, and some big names as well also decided to weigh in, including home run champ hank aaron. take a listen. >> the rodriguez thing is sad, you know, really. and it's sad to the point that i don't know whether he's guilty

or not, but i like to say that the ball player that i saw 15, 16 years ago, i just like for him to get back to doing the things that he can do best, and that's to play baseball. >> reporter: and, of course, hammering hank at issue with peds himself. he, of course, didn't have some, but his home run record was beaten bier barry bonds of course tied to scandal here in san francisco. kelly: what to you make of baseball now? america's favorite pastime. jenna: more than a dozen diplomatic posts shut down overseas and new details on a lie high-level threat regarding al-qaeda. plus, a statewide amber alert in effect. their mother's remains found in a burned-out house, two children missing. police say they believe they know who has these kids. an update, just ahead. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] this is kevin.

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kelly: afox news alert, a military jude has reduced the potential sentence for convicted wikileaks leaker bradley manning. judge colonel denise lind said some of the convictions should be merged. the maximum sentence is now 90 years instead of the possible 136 years previously possible. lind found manning guilty of 19 criminal counts related to the largest unauthorized release of secret data in u.s. history. jenna: well, right now the state department evacuating all of its nonessential embassy personnel out of yemen and urging all americans in that country to get out immediately. this is in response to u.s. intelligence picking up al-qaeda chatter as we've been told at the highest levels of plans to launch a big terror attack. this is triggering the closing of nearly two dozen american embassies and diplomatic

outposts across the muslim world. let's talk about it with mike o'hanlon at the brookings institution. so, michael, that was news this morning, the evacuation of personnel from our embassy in yemen. it still seems far away though. you know, this is not -- in distant countries what do you make of the threat that this announcement from the state department poses to us here at home? do you think there's a heightened threat for us here on our soil? >> you know, jenna, it's a great question. and i don't know the answer. clearly, this specific intercept was about zawahiri, al-qaeda's leader probably over in pakistan, talking to the leader of al-qaeda in yemen and trying to orchestrate and coordinate a specific attack probably in yemen it now appears although, of course, we closed the 19 embassies and consulates or a few more than that at one time throughout the broader middle east. so there was some specificity to that particular attack. but anytime you hear this kind

of chatter, it makes you wonder if the overall movement is trying to get more energized and attempt something even here, or maybe there could be an airplane in the region that was attacked. we've seen that, of course, in the past. i think overall -- i don't want to overhype it, you know, it was one specific plan, and i think our authorities have responded appropriately. but i think you're right to, basically, raise that question because we can't really rule it out. and the idea that the al-qaeda threat is really, you know, on its heels and on the way out is probably a little bit of wishful thinking on anybody's part who would indulge in that. jenna: let's indulge in it just a moment. just a reminder, the christmas day bomber, the plot for that emanated from yemen. that was during anwar al-awlaki's time. he now is dead, but yemen has been a spot we've looked at for years. you've been all over the world, you've looked at terrorism since 9/11. what do you make of this reaction and what it really says about the state of al-qaeda and the quote-unquote war on terror today?

>> well, i still think you have to assume al-qaeda is strongest as a group of localized movements in individual countries. so, yes, we have to worry about it here, but the specific places where we've had threats of a scale that really could cause dozens or hundreds of deaths in recent years, they've been in a few particular countries. so al-qaeda still has some meaning as a common ideology, with a common figurehead leader. in this case, apparently, he's trying to be an operation alleyeder, zawahiri. but for the most part it's broken down into these individual cells or units in places like iraq, syria and yemen. and it's still very dangerous, obviously, it's hugely dangerous to those countries. and to anybody who's there including americans which is why we see the extra warning today for americans in yemen. so i don't think the global threat is necessarily growing, but i think it's still at some residual level that's scary enough, because they could do something nasty even beyond

those countries that i just mentioned. jenna: it's interesting to hear that you believe the global threat is not growing, but we're seeing a reaction that we haven't seen, what, in the last decade probably? more than that? of closing down these embassies? so if the global threat is not growing, then why would we do this? >> well, for one thing i would say, jenna, that the global threat never was that small. i mean, you'll think back, i know you remember things like the train bombing in spain in 2003, the london subway with bombing in 2005, the attempted bombing of a dozen airliners going from britain to the united states which i think was 2007. then we had you mentioned the underwear bomber and the fort hood, major hasan shootings in 2009, the times square attempted bombing in the 2010, the attempt on the new york subway system later that same year. it's never really stopped. and there was the fedex printer cartridge attempted bombing for the airliners coming from the broader middle east to the united states a couple years ago. so when i say the threat's not

growing, i don't want to suggest that it's paltry or unimportant. and i would say it's grown in iraq and in syria and probably stayed at a worrisomely high level in yemen and oscillated a bit back and forth in the libya and mali. and probably declined a bit in pakistan, but broader extremists and islamic movements there are still worrisome, you know, to that country. jenna: i only have -- >> overall, yeah, it's still pretty serious. jenna: i only have about 30 seconds, but as far as a threat posed to americans on our soil, do you think that's bigger or smaller based on this news? >> i don't think it's bigger, jenna. you know, it's worth watching. jenna: yeah, sure. >> it's worth keeping some kind of nsa programs in place even as we may increase programs and oversight. it's big enough that i worry about it. i don't want to say it's grown. jenna: interesting. it's hard to know, you know, these stories seem so far away and yet we get these different stories you listed off about the

different plots, and we wonder how safe are our families and how safe are we here. michael, thank you very much. >> thank you, jenna. kelly: well, a serious heart condition for former president george w. bush. how he's doing today after doctors ordered an urgent --

kelly: a fox news alert on an amber alert in california where police in san diego are searching for these two children, 16-year-old hannah anderson and her 8-year-old brother ethan, both disappearing after their mother's body was found burned inside a house near the u.s./mexico border. another child's body also found in the rubble. suspect james dimaggio owns that home and lived there alone. he was said to have close relationships with the mother. >> we believe that if they are

with dimaggio, that they are in danger. homicide detail got out there around midnight last night. we've been out there ever since. we've done a lot of interviews, we've examined the scene forensically, we've recovered a lot of evidence. kelly: police saudi imagine owe is believed to be driving a blue nissan verse saw. if you see the car or have any information about this case at all, please call the san diego county sheriff's office at 858-565-5200. that's 858-565-5200. jenna: well, now the latest on the american dream, what's the state of the american housing market. right now the president is gearing up to deliver an economic speech in phoenix where he's expected to lay out his new plan for the housing market. in part he wants to overhaul the u.s. mortgage system. he wants to get rid of fannie mae and freddie mac while giving homeowners more access to 30-year mortgages. he's not the only or even the first president to make any sort

of proposals on the housing market. just for context, here's what's been said in the past: >> want to reinforce family values in america, encourage two-parent households, yet people to -- make it easy for people to own their own homes and enjoy the rewards of family life and see their work rewarded. this is a big deal. this is about more than money and sticks and boards and windows. this is about the way we live as a people and what kind of society we're going to have. >> to build an ownership society, we'll help even more americans buy homes. some families are more than able to pay a mortgage but just don't have the savings to put money down. we'll continue to help them realize their dreams with a down payment. so i'm asking congress to pass my zero down payment initiative. jenna: mike santoli is senior columnist for yahoo! finance, taking a little trip through a blast from the past there, mike. george bush was really focusing on fewer, less for the down

payment. we're hearing something a little bit different from the president today. what makes what the president is expected to talk about different? >> well, there's some momentum behind the idea of winding down fannie mae and freddie mac which have been absorbed by the government in receivership since the housing bust. now, what's going to replace that? the fear is that banks will not be willing to provide 30-year mortgages, for example. they don't like to provide such a long-term loan unless they have some kind of backing by the government or some other entity. that's what fannie and freddie used to do, so the president seems like he's going to create another structure to have the government stand behind those mortgages. jenna: right now if i go out and get a mortgage, if i was qualified in a certain income bracket, the bank would say, okay, i'm going to give you the mortgage because the government's going to back your loan? >> very often they would sell that to fannie mae or freddie mac, and that was the system that worked for years. basically, it became too expensive in a bailout scenario. so one thing fannie and freddie used to do was just insure the

mortgages. that's what, i think, the government is likely to do. basically, in a really bad housing market if you have huge losses to take, the government would absorb some of those, but they wouldn't necessarily, i don't think, become dealers and traders in mortgagings. keep in mind, those were private corporations that had shareholders that were creating billions in profits by trading mortgages for those shareholders. so the government presumably would not want to make a profit on this. of. jenna: it's very guesting, fannie and freddie absorbed a space in the market that was this weird hybrid sort of thing. we'll leave that for just a second. one of the other things the president's supposed to be talking about is instead of having less money to put down, there's indications he's going to say, listen, people that have pretty good credit ratings are not getting loans because banks are afraid to loan to them, and you have to have these perfect credit ratings to get a mortgage, and we want to incentivize banks so they'll give a mortgage to somebody that has a 600 credit score instead of a 720. what do you think about that type of government intervention? >> i mean, i think in principle,

obviously, it's a popular thing to do. you saw bipartisan support in the past for putting your finger on the scale in favor of home ownership. that means catching some people who maybe can't afford the full home they're looking to buy. i don't think the risk right now the is that banks are going to get too reckless in lending, so i do think it makes sense to at least make sure that banks are doing rational loans to people with less than perfect credit. jenna: well, you know, the president -- i don't want to make blanket statements, but i'm going to make one right now. no one says you're owed to buy a car. >> of course. jenna: so why is it the presidents of all different parties believe they should have any sort of part in the housing market, and what would happen if the government was like, you know what? we're not going to be a part of it. >> obviously, it's become this vein in american political culture that home ownership is up there with all the other vie chews of the american dream. it doesn't have to be that way. in fact, by the way, 30-year mortgages are a uniquely american thing. other countries have

shorter-term loans, they don't really think that massive home ownership is a public good, and too many people owned homes going into the bubble. you know that a certain sliver of people probably should have been renting. i actually think we are in a prolonged period of time where more people will rent because of all these new realities. jenna: and it's really inexpensive to rent right now. we'll be interested to hear the president's ideas later on. thank you very much. kelly: all right, thank you very much. whitey bulger's fate now in the hands of the jury. we are live at the courthouse in the mob trial grabbing the country's attention. plus, our legal panel on the key issues for the jury. i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points on

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kelly: want to update you on former president george w. bush. doctors discovering a blockage in an artery during his annual physical on monday. this morning the 67-year-old former president had a stent inserted in the artery to open that blockage. he is now resting comfortly, we might add, and is expected to be discharged tomorrow. the former president has no previous history of heart trouble. jenna: well, right now verdict watch is on for the whitey bulger case as the jury begins deliberating the fate of the accused boston mobster. this after weeks of dramatic testimony from gangsters, the fbi and relatives of the murder victims. bulger stands accused of participating in 19 murders during what prosecutors call his reign of terror, that was during the 1970s and 1980s when he

was the leader of the so-called winter hill gang. molly line is live in boston with more on this. >> reporter: jenna, the deliberations are underway. the judge spent about an hour and 45 minutes giving her final instructions to the jury this morning. the judge telling them your duty is to find the facts and apply the law as i give it to you whether you agree with it or not. she covered a lot of legal ground, but among her instructions said there is no inference of guilt because the defendant did not testify. james "whitey" bulger decided not to take the stand calling the trial a sham last week. the judge also spoke about the issue of flight saying flight does not provide a basis for guilt. bulger fled in 1994. he had been tipped off by corrupt fbi agents, and he spent 16 years living under a false identity with his girlfriend before being ultimately arrested in santa monica, california, in june of 2011. now, there are 18 jurors, six are alternate, but the 12 jurors

selected to deliberate are now secluded away going over that mountain of evidence. over 70 witnesses testified over the course of this trial, and bulger is facing 32 counts -- among them, racketeering charges that include more than 30 racketeering acts. and among those acts those 19 murders in which bulger is alleged to have played a role. and then there's a multitude of counts related to money laundering, extortion and narcotics. the jury is expected to deliberate this afternoon ending at around 4:30 today, and keep in mind a conviction of even one of the lesser charges could really result in a penalty of life in prison considering that bulger is 83 years old. jenna? jenna: we'll wait and watch to see what happens, molly, thank you. kelly: well, for more on the jury deliberations in the whitey bulger case, let's bring in doug burns, former federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, and phillip snyder, former prosecutor as well. gentlemen, what do you make of this entire trial that so many people have been rivetted by because of the dramatic

testimony presented during the prosecution's case and then the fact that whitey bulger would not take the stand to talk about these alleged crimes? what does it say to the jurors? i mean, what are they now deliberating? what are they focusing on? doug? >> i'll start. look, the case was unusual right out of the gate. kelly: it was. >> you have an 83-year-old defendant, a defendant who had fled and been a fugitive for 16 years. and now he's on trial for a spate of very serious crimes. having said that, the core of the case is actually not unusual at all. we see this every single day in criminal cases, and that is a number of cooperators come in, and the defense argues they made deals, they were given freedom, they were given leniency, you can't trust them, so on and so forth. but as my colleague, i'm sure, will explain as well the counterargument is, look, we would have loved to have brought in choir boys and nurses, but these are the crimes involved

with whitey bulger. and if they aren't truthful, we rip up the plea agreement. so it's an uphill battle for the defense. kelly: phillip, it kind of reminds me of the days of the john gotti trial, he kept getting away with everything, and then they finally brought in sammy "the bull" gravano, and he was no longer teflon don. and then they also stuck the racketeering charges through the rico act to actually get him, to get that conviction. are we seeing a similar situation with the whitey bulger case? >> exactly. you know, when you roll around in mud, you're going to get dirty, and here's what's going on here. you have a situation where the defense has already pretty much conceded to all the charges not related to the murder. so just those charges alone with going to put whitey bulger in jail for the rest of his life. his whole defense was based on, well, i didn't kill those women, and i'm not a rat. so maybe in his head he thinks i'm going to go to jail, prison a free man because this is off my chest. but just those first charges are

going to put him in prison for the rest of his life. kelly: let me give you a quote from the prosecuting attorney who said bulger is one of the most, quote: vicious, viabilities and calculating criminals to ever walk the streets of boston. is that a nail in the coffin for him? will he get some sort of conviction out of this, doug? >> hey, when you have a case involving 19 murders, let's hit the rewind button last week when everybody was asking is whitey bulger going to testify in his own defense, and the judge instructed the jury not to hold that against him. but he could never have withstood a about 19 murders. so to answer your observation, of course, it's a nail in the coffin. the defense lawyer got right up in the opening, and i would suggest just give the regular standard opening and sit down. instead, he basically concedes, as phillip said, that he's guilty of loan sharking and extortion and drug dealing.

kelly: but then they tried to pin it on the government informant saying this was all the government's fault and immunity. but the bottom line is that bulger allegedly is the one who pointed the gun and fired the gun. >> that's true. and the judge really shut that argument down somewhat pretty quickly. the defense was trying to say, look, it's the fbi's fault. there's p 00 pages -- 700 pages of documents made up. it's all made up, and the judge said, no, no, that's not really going to fly, and i think the jury's going to see through that. this case is about whitey bulger and not about any misgivings that the fbi agents did. kelly: always good to see you both. thanks for sharing your insights. >> my pleasure. >> thank you. jenna: a crazed gunman opening fire on a crowd of people at a town hall meeting in pennsylvania. coming up, what we're learning now about the shooter and what may have sparked his rampage. plus, a 15 million-year-old whale skull -- kelly: are you kidding me? >> jenna: found in the backyard of

a famous american. where scientists found it and what it tells us, next.

... ... ... ... ... ...

kelly: all right, you're going to love this. a discovery right out of jurassic park. scientists in portugal uncovering a pair of dinosaur nests filled with well-preserved egg shells. a rare find because scientists say egg shells are so delicate and hardly any have survived. researchers believe that some of the egg shells once harbored embryos of huge meat-eating dinosaurs like the one seen here which roamed the earth some 150 million years ago. jenna: i'd like to avoid any of those. that one, that one, that's the one i don't want to -- [laughter] it's an incredible prehistoric discovery near our nation's capital, a massive fossil dug up from a river bank.

the 6-foot-long skull of a long- extinct creature. it's tough to make out there, but it's believed to have once belonged to a 25-foot-long whale. and joining us on the phone is john nance, and he's one of the men who discovered or recovered this fossil. so, john, let's start there. just tell us the story. how did you find it was even there, and what did it take to get it out of the ground? >> hi, how are you doing? back in june of this year i got a call from one of my colleagues down here at stratford hall, and they let me know about a whale skull that was exposed in the cliff. and he had been collecting around here for many years and knew that it was a very large whale skull and that it was an important find, and so after he called me up, i went down there and checked out the skull, confirmed what it was and got

gps coordinates. we proceeded to get permission from stratford hall and actually excavate the whale skull. jenna: and stratford hall, just for our viewers, that is the place where it was the original home of the lee family of virginia, robert e. lee was born there in this area, on that land? >> that is correct. it is the birthplace of robert e. lee. kelly: so, john, that makes it unusual because no one would ever anticipate that a whale would be that far inland because you're talking about the potomac river. you know, how could a whale get that close inland? so if you're dating back to 15 million years ago, what does that say about to position my of that area? >> yeah, exactly. so during the epic 15 million years ago, this area was completely underwater. we had an inland sea that covered the entire atlantic

seaboard here all the way up to d.c. d.c. was the waterfront property of the time. and so back then this area was teeming with whales, crocodiles, sharks, and this is where the whale happened to die. and as the potomac river erodes the cliffs here at stratford hall, bone is exposed, and that's how we came to find this whale skull. jenna: john, did you find any other part of it beyond the skull, and how different is the whale that you found, the whale that would be 15 million years old, how different is it from the whales that are in our ocean today? >> it's very similar to the whales in the oceans today. it's a balene whale it is a filter-feeding whale, and it would be very similar to the modern day minke whale. and also we did find what we

think is the majority of the skeleton along with the skull. so we were able to recover the lower jaws, and right now we're actually in the field working to recover the vertebrae and the ribs of the animal. jenna: that's so interesting. a lot of weird things happen in d.c., john. you don't need to commented on that. [laughter] it's very fascinating just to find that in the ground. good luck with your work, john, and we'll check back in with you, see how things are going. >> thank you very much. kelly: meantime, a high risk of attack by al-qaeda prompting the u.s. and other countries to pull much of their embassy staff out of yemen. what we know about the terror threat. we're live with that story. and a major milestone for the mars rover as we take a look pack at what nasa's -- back at what nasa's curiosity has accomplished so far on the red planet. that's next. ♪ ♪ mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004.

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kelly: "happening now," one earth year. nasa's rover curiosity marking its first year on the red planet and what a ride it has been. but curiosity's mission is hardly over. steve harrigan live on what the curiosity has discovered so far and what more we can expect. hey, steve. >> reporter: kelly, nasa celebrating a number of milestones in the first year of curiosity on the surface of mars. first, simply getting it there. this is a $2.5 billion project. the mobile laboratory's about size of a car with six wheels and landing curiosity on the exact spot on mars they intended to from a distance of more than 34 million miles away, hitting

that target and making sure all worked was quite an achievement. second, about eight months into this project the rover discovered what was likely to be streambeds about two billion years ago. this means that there was running water on mars, now proven conditions that mean that there were microbes and life on the planet. >> it all added up to understanding this environment as being chemically one that was favorable for life not in a harsh way, but actually quite a benign environment that's very much like earth. >> reporter: now, the curiosity still has about a year's work to go. it's going to be making its way towards mount sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain about 4 miles away, and the rover will be going at a steady clip of about 100 yards a day, so it's going to take some time to get there. nasa, in the meantime, will launch another spacecraft towards mars in november.

this will measure the atmosphere and especially the radiation around the planet. all of this robotic exploration is in preparation for what nasa says will be future manned space flights to mars. kelly? kelly: steve, something we'll be watching because curiosity is certainly satisfying our curiosity about the red planet so far. thanks, steve. jenna: well, hey, you might be happy or this happy if you made the nfl's hall of fame. super sacker warren sapp like you've never seen him before. a little bit different from off the field. wait until you see in the clip. ♪ ♪

>> there is always a second career for athletes and apparently this athlete can move

not only on the football team. check it out. ♪ ♪ (singing) >> amazing. his name is warren sa pp. he was celebrating his hall of fame induction. and you might so the golden jacket he has. and he is a one of a kind defensive back for tampa bay bucks. he was runner up on dancing with the stars which may be part of the inspiration. >> he has a second career and can go out and dance again. >> what do you think about that. >> i am not sure the rumba or tanningo? >> i think it is a sapp, move. >> congratulations to him. >> thanks for joining us, i will

be with again. >> thanks for joining us america lives starts right now. nstarting with a fox news alert. dozens of employees have been air lifted in yemen. there was a decision to evacuate and growing concerns over extremely high security threat level. welcome everyone to america live. i am jamie colby. >> and i am gregg jarret. we are in for megyn kelliy. the state department is urging all american citizens to get out and leave the country. intelligence officials have increased chatter about an imminent attack in and around the araban peninsula where a dangerous al-qaeda have set up shop. the britishov